Steady state geotherm, thermal disturbances, and tectonic development of the lower lithosphere underneath the Gibeon Kimberlite Province, Namibia

Abstract

The Gibeon Kimberlite Province of southern Namibia comprises more than 75 group 1 kimberlite pipes and dykes. From the Gibeon Townsland 1 pipe, 38 upper mantle xenoliths (23 garnet lherzolites and 15 garnet harzburgites) were collected and minerals were analysed by electron microprobe for major elements. Pressures and temperatures of crystallisation for xenoliths with either coarse equant, porphyroclastic and mosaic-porphyroclastic textures were estimated by a number of combinations of geothermometers and geobarometers judged to be reliable and accurate for peridotites by Brey and Kohler (1990): The P-T estimates for equilibrated xenoliths agree within the errors of the methods and plot within the stability field of graphite. The P-T values for coarse equant xenoliths fall close to a geothermal gradient of about 44 mW/m2 within a very restricted pressure range. The porphyroclastic xenoliths yield similar and higher temperatures at similar depths. In these xenoliths Ca in orthopyroxene and Ca in olivine increase towards the rims and are high in the neoblasts indicating a stage of transient heating at depth. The mosaic-porphyroclastic xenolith minerals yield the highest temperatures, are unzoned and indicate internal mineral equilibrium. The depth of origin for the xenoliths from Gibeon Townsland 1 ranges from 100 to 140 km. The “cold”, coarse equant peridotites are relatively enriched garnet lherzolites with comparatively (to the “hot” peridotites) low modal orthopyroxene contents, whereas the “hot”, mosaic-porphyroclastic peridotites are depleted garnet harzburgites with high modal amounts of orthopyroxene. This is opposite to the findings for peridotites from the Kaapvaal craton where the cold peridotites are depleted harzburgites with high modal orthopyroxene and many of the hot peridotites are fertile lherzolites with low modal abundance of orthopyroxene. We present a model in which the high temperature, depleted garnet harzburgites are equated to the cold, coarse equant peridotites from the Kaapvaal craton. It is envisaged that this material was detached and transported laterally by an upwelling, deflected plume.